A Stranger's Welcome
When Nano comes to, he finds himself in a bed inside of Makihel's Tower. Makihel offers to train him in the art of magic, but then Nilmurasi tells Nano that the king of Demonholme is expecting him. He chooses to go with Nilmurasi. Walking down the tower with Nilmurasi, Nano happens upon a strange idol. This starts the side-quest Hide & Seek ~ Wicked Child. Finally leave the tower, Nano decides to take the scenic route to Demonholme. Upon entering the forest south of the tower, they are soon beset a raptor-like beast known as a Rydranox. After a great deal of effort, Nano manages to kill the beast. It's body disintegrated, leaving behind a Black Spellstone Fragment. As they left the Island of Solitude, the mysterious cat from the keep appeared again. She sensed the power of the spellstone fragment Nano found and warned him that something was strange about it and that he should use caution when reuniting the fragments. When they reached the entrance of the Forest of Autumn, the cat disappeared. Shortly upon entering the forest. Nano finds himself guided by one of the Ice Fairies. It lead him to a circle of standing stones surrounding a small bed of flowers. Under the direction of the fairy, Nano activated all eight of the standing stone's symbols. Sacrificing itself, Uria was released from her prison. The fairy needed Nano's help in restoring the forest to it's normal conditions. Uria explains that a dragon by the name of Garjulaz tricked her into being imprisoned in the stone circle, and has corrupted the guardian of the forest. She asks that Nano kills the guardian so that a new one can appear. This can only be done by attuning himself to the four elements of the forest, which are in found in four rocks scattered throughout the forest. This will open a hidden path to the Impenetrable Grotto. Nano and party continue northward through the forest. Happening upon an Elf Cache that contained a pair of Elven Wooden Gauntlets, along the way. Further still they run into an Evil Tuber, but it is quickly dispatched. Eventually Nano comes to the first rock in his quest: The Windy Rock. Meditating upon the wind that emanates from the stone, he is granted a vision of the past. He sees a man clad in red who he can only assume is Garjulaz, who defeats the guardian and then corrupts him into a twisted abomination. After the vision, Nano is gifted with wind that makes his body much lighter. The party continues exploring until they come to a fork in the path located northeast. Nano asks Uria to scout ahead. When Uria returned, she tells him that the northern path contains an Elf Cache and the southern path has a body. Immediately Nano rushes down the southern path to find the body of a young university student. Further investigation yeilds little information other than her name was Tallia Mortiare and that the cause of death was unknown. Nano collects her spellbook and a box of spellstones for safe keeping, deciding not to use the stones. Nano then went to the Elf Cache down the northern path. Inside he found a Silver Ring, a Cracked Monocle, a Unidentified Flask, as well as a pair of Uria's panties that somehow found it's way inside the cache. They then continued westward down the path yet unexplored. There they find another of the elemental rocks: The Mossy Rock. Here Nano meditated on the life flowing from it's mossy surface. That's when he found himself surrounded by darkness. A small boy was crying over the body of Tallia, lamenting that he could not save her. He then demand that Nano find the one responsible for doing this: one of his servants by the name of Laivolune. Then Nano wakes from his meditation, not receiving the gift of life. Having explored all of the east side of the forest, the party heads back to the main road in an attempt to reach the west side of the forest where Laivolune is said to be located. However they found both sides of the main road blocked by his roots. However the southern main road had a path off to the side, hidden by briars. Nano easily removes them and continues on. Down the path, Nano comes to a small meadow. Here the monocle he has been wearing suddenly reacts. Uria takes a look at it and does a minor repair to the magical item. Putting the monocle back on, Nano finds the party surrounded by shadowy creatures... He managed to slay one that was about to eat Uria. They then proceeded down the path beyond the meadow cautiously, encountering a dead Evil Tuber. Further down the path, the party comes to another clearing. Here more dead Evil Tubers are found, along with a Black Wolf that killed them. It appeared to be barely holding back it's attack. After short scuffle and the breaking of Nano's Snowkin Saber, the wolf blasts Nano with a shadow spell. Nilmurasi finishes it off after that. Nano was not seriously hurt, only shaken up. The next clearing they come to has a patch of various herbs, Nano suggests that they come back later. Moving on to the clearing north of there, Nano discovers a door that can only be seen by the Magic Monocle. According to both Uria and Nilmurasi, this door could be a Gateway. Upon opening it however, Nano finds that it leads to nothing. Continuing on, following Uria who had scouted ahead for him, they head in the direction of two Elf Caches. The first one to the left contained a Gabrim Fruit, which increased Nano's magical capacity once he ate it. Proceeding to the next cache, Nano finds an oblong spellstone, green in color with several long flower-like markings on it. He learns Sweet Air from this stone. Eventually the party finds themselves confronting Laivolune finally. It was a tough battle that left them quite bruised. However towards the end, Nano was mortally wounded. This awakened something inside him that took control, utterly obliterating what was left if Laivolune with advanced Meta Spells. When the battle was over, Nano found himself no longer wounded. After the battle, Nano finds the soul of Tallia, a leafy spellstone that contained the guardian Silvas, and a Black Spellstone Fragment. After returning to her body, Nano places Tallia's soul back into her. She awakens, confused as to why she fell asleep in this particular location since she was on her way to Makihel's Tower. Thinking that Makihel wouldn't be at his tower any longer, she decides to join Nano's party. After bringing Tallia back to life, Nano continues on with his quest to get attuned with the four forest elements. First he returns to The Mossy Rock to receive the gift of Life from the mysterious boy there. After doing so, he returns to the battlefield and continues to explore the areas he has not done so yet. Eventually he finds The Dirty Rock, which allowed him to meet with a rather uninterested tortoise. He was able to convince her to give him her boon of Earth. Afterwards he continues exploring, eventually finding The Moist Rock. Here he was able to meet a friendly spirit of water, who gave Nano the gift of Water in exchange for a promise of a return visit. With that, Nano has attuned himself to the four elements of the forest. This opened up a hidden path to the Impenetrable Grotto. Nano then proceeded north to face the forest's Guardian. Eventually reaching the grotto, the party is trapped inside. Then the forest's guardian Gnarled Bull appears. The battle that followed was a a difficult one, with Nilmurasi and Tallia they battle was eventually won. However, Uria was turned to stone by the guardian's third eye beam... The to girls reassure Nano that Makihel should be able to help her. After the battle, the party finally left the forest and continued on their way to Demonholme City. Eventually arriving at Colai Village, where Tallia part ways with the party. After she leaves, Nano notices that the village is deserted.